CBS Renews 'How I Met Your Mother' For 2 More Seasons

Be prepared to not find out who the mother of Ted’s kids is for another 2 years. CBS and How I Met Your Mother producer 20th Century Fox Television have closed a deal to pick up the relationship comedy from Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for 2 additional seasons, through May 2013. I think this is the earliest HIMYM has been renewed; the underrated series usually gets the nod just before CBS’ annual upfront.

With the show continuing to grow in its sixth season and the future of CBS comedy tentpole Two and a Half Men uncertain, I hear 20th TV got nice coin for HIMYM: a new license fee of about $3.3 million per episode. The cast – Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan – are all set to return.

HIMYM started off as a cult favorite with great online following but soft ratings. Then something happened in the spring of 2008, right after the show came back from the writers strike. Fueled by a well-cast and -promoted guest appearance by Britney Spears, HIMYM took off in the ratings and never looked back. Later that year, 20th TV inked rich syndication deals for the show.

The two-year pickup for HIMYM follows CBS’ recent three-year deal for comedy The Big Bang Theory. And Two and a Half Men has one more season under its 3-year renewal sealed in 2009.

easily the best comedy on TV and well worth it. This season was a tad uneven and the premise is getting a little long in the tooth but the show is still very funny and at this point the title is just a framing device to tell the story of these five people. I say eight seasons is great.

Jerry • on Mar 4, 2011 8:05 pm

I tried to get into this show but find it unfunny.

40yearoldstitzer • on Mar 4, 2011 8:15 pm

Surprised Jason Segel stuck around. He told GQ magazine last summer that he wanted to leave after another 2 seasons

Daw Johnson • on Mar 5, 2011 3:24 am

Um…yeah. And it was just renewed for two seasons.

Anyone on this show who’s ever discussed an end-date has talked about it running for eight seasons. Segel included.

Scott • on Mar 5, 2011 7:48 am

@40yearoldstitzer, what Jason Segel ACTUALLY said to GQ magazine was that he was contracted to HIMYM to the end of the 8th season, which is when creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have said the series will end. So it is actually a moot point because when HIMYM finishes at the end of season 8, Jason Segel couldn’t possibly work there for a 9th season. anyway, in Jason Segel’s own words from this GQ interview, here’s what he actually said:

GQ: How many more years do you have on How I Met Your Mother?
JS: Three more years.

GQ: Do you think it’s going to go longer than that?
JS: It’s an amazing place to be. But when you become an actor, part of it, the secret part of it, is that you don’t want to work a regular nine-to-five job. And the secret part of a TV show is that it’s a nine-to-five job. And eight years is longer than any relationship I’ve ever been in, it’s longer than any school I went to. I think after eight years, I’ll feel like I honorably did my commitment. It’s funny — it’s the greatest problem in the world to have. Jeez — I’m the luckiest guy in the world. But when your idol is Peter Sellers, playing one character for eight years isn’t what you’re trying to do. I don’t really feel like I have that much more to offer with this character. Maybe if we got divorced or something—but that’s not gonna happen. It’s gonna be some iteration of, like, my TV wife opens the fridge, and she’s like, “What happened to the birthday cake?” And I walk in with a little frosting here [points to corner of mouth] like, “What birthday cake?”

And as we’ve all seen this season, Marshall has had some terrific storylines surrounding his family back in Minnesota and of course his current family, Lily.

I hope that explains things.

Anonymous • on Mar 4, 2011 8:16 pm

I love Alyson Hanigan but I’ve never watched more than one minute of this show it’s all I can stand the ensemble is obnoxious and whiny all they do is complain. Alyson should have her own show I’d watch every minute of every episode just for her she’s a delight.

Herb Finn • on Mar 4, 2011 8:28 pm

If funny to think that CBS almost canceled this show not once, but TWICE!

sparced • on Mar 4, 2011 8:55 pm

“CBS, of course, also has Two and a Half Men locked in for next season.”

i’ll believe it when i see it actually air an episode next season.

Anne • on Mar 4, 2011 9:18 pm

The great thing about HIMYM is that it’s a sitcom that the random viewer can drop in on occasion and enjoy (in re-runs or even watching while aired when they have the time) but it’s also a sitcom that very loyal viewers can watch and know that they are getting the jokes that occasional viewers just don’t get – the inside jokes, as it were. “Friends”, while much more popular, enjoyed this too. Funny for occasional viewers, but also MUCH MORE funnier for loyal viewers. Seinfeld too.

Hashim Warren • on Mar 4, 2011 9:49 pm

I picked up on this show when it went into syndication. Now I’m interested in both the DVDs and the new episodes.

EnuffAlready • on Mar 4, 2011 9:54 pm

I hope they can keep the quality up. It was sinking last season, but I must admit this season has been an improvement.

jake • on Mar 4, 2011 10:17 pm

i wish that we would find out who the mother is before the last episode

Kabbe • on Mar 5, 2011 1:10 am

it is Robin, so obvious.

ginger • on Mar 5, 2011 5:43 am

LOLOL “Aunt Robin” is the mother? ULTIMATE TWEEST.

James • on Mar 5, 2011 8:20 am

Impossible. Have you even watched the show? It’s impossible for it to be Robin for so many reasons.

Rob J. • on Mar 5, 2011 11:38 am

The show established in the pilot that Future!Ted is an unreliable narrator of the prankster/”I’m deceiving you far a very good reason that I’ll tell you about later in the episode” type, so as far as I’m concerned, Robin ain’t out of the running until/unless the Mother is finally revealed. Future!Ted tends to use the truth to create lies so close to reality that at the end of each story, we find out that he’d been justified in withholding the truth or lying or whatever simply because he wants to make the truth not so glaringly obvious at first glance — because the revelation of the truth at the end makes that truth memorable. When the series eventually ends, we’ll find out, like at the end of every episode, exactly what details that we now think of as facts are actually lies and/or red herrings and/or sleights-of-hand meant to make you look at an event or detail in one way that actually mean something else when what really happened is finallly revealed.

In other words, each episode is a bit of a Long Con that leaves everybody richer rather that poorer at the end. Conversely, I would think that the series when taken as a narrative whole would be a mega-Long Con in which the facts are finally shorn of the lies, the red herrings and the verbal sleights-of-hand.

Kabbe • on Mar 6, 2011 11:21 am

Thanks for telling these for the 2 loseres above. You spared me some time brother!

Common Sense • on Mar 21, 2011 10:23 pm

He tells the kids about “Aunt Robin”. Not “this woman named Robin”. The kids have an “aunt” named Robin that they *know*. Ted’s an unreliable narrator but that’s way too much of a straight up lie. Unreliable narrator means he fudges the truth, forgets things and so on, but he isn’t downright lying to them, because he’s a pompous old man telling his kids a story about him. It’s out of future ted character to have that sort of lie.

Robin is not the mother.

JB • on Mar 30, 2012 2:38 pm

Not possible. At one point, Ted dated his future wife’s roommate. While he never met her at the time, she was in the apartment. This is while Robin was Ted’s roommate. Why would Robin be living in two apartments at once? Makes no sense and it’s too much of a stretch. This show is too consistent in its storytelling to let a plothole like that through.

Tim • on Apr 7, 2012 11:23 am

Actually it has already been said that it’s someone new to the show I think, the mother was supposed to have the yellow umbrella, bee room mates with one of the women “Ted” dates, and finally in one of the last episodes revealed to have met her at one of his friends weddings.

come on guys • on Apr 10, 2012 4:37 pm

Yes he met his wife at the wedding and by that time him and robin have already known each other for a long time

Daw Johnson • on Mar 5, 2011 3:30 am

Also…the ratings assessment here is just simply untrue.

How I Met Your Mother’s viewership was never higher than it was for the bulk of the first season. It was doing over 10 million through May of that year.

Britney Spears brought it back above 10 million after two seasons of 9+ million and then 8+ million, but it fell right back down shortly after her first appearance.

It then hit a peak of sorts midway through season 4, following a brilliant trio of episodes (The Naked Man, The Fight, Little Minesota).

But it’s still had highs and lows in seasons five and six, seemingly dependent on when Dancing with the Stars runs.

pubics • on Mar 5, 2011 3:31 am

I love HIMYM, but the best comedy on tv is Modern Family. Hilarious stuff. Personally, I think Two and a Half Men is over…. whoever you believe, Charlie Sheen and the creators of the show are behaving like idiots. Now Charlie Sheen wants more than 3m an episode, Everyone knows Alan is the star of the show. Dump Sheen (kill him off), either replace him with another actor or bring in a new character

jake • on Mar 5, 2011 5:33 am

With the cash cow that this show is.I’d be surprised if it didn’t return in some form. Finally some respect for how I met your mother.

sam • on Mar 5, 2011 5:34 am

I hope they renew mad love too. Great cast and funny!

jake • on Mar 5, 2011 5:35 am

Cast raise?????

Alex • on Mar 5, 2011 6:59 am

This is my favoret sit-com so this is really happy news. Besides a great cast it’s the best written sit-com on TV.

Rach • on Mar 5, 2011 2:45 pm

Your whole post is nonsense. This is as close to her own show as Aly is ever likely to get, she’s a major major part of the cast, so if your statement is correct, you should be watching. Duh.

JW • on Mar 5, 2011 3:56 pm

So give that her appearance saved this show, does Brit have a piece of the syndication backend? HA !

Mary • on Mar 5, 2011 4:44 pm

They should give them all raises for not acting like crazy junkies.

slim • on Mar 5, 2011 7:55 pm

People who think Robin is the mother clearly don’t watch the show. The mother while not revealed yet is very specifically referred to. Ted dates her roommate while being roommates with Robin. So no, it can’t be Robin. Unless Allison Hangian brought her Buffy Universe with her onto HIMYM and now they all live in an Alternate dimension where there are two Robins.

Kabbe • on Mar 6, 2011 11:24 am

I want to see your face when the show ends!

stix • on Mar 6, 2011 12:26 pm

great show and well deserved pickup

stix • on Mar 6, 2011 3:41 pm

the show is funny and the cast is great good for CBS smart move!

yeah • on Mar 7, 2011 8:45 pm

Britney’s cameo episode “Ten Sessions” is still one of the series’ highest rated eps, and they made sure it counted (having the creators write that episode). It’s still one of my favorites, thanks largely to Ted’s “date” at the end of the ep.

But like most series, I think the series was better in the first couple of seasons. I was a hardcore HIMYM fan until about season 4, then just stopped watching. 8 seasons seems a little too long for the series, it was already getting kind of stale. Oh well, I guess they could write-in a pregnancy & birth, or friends marrying, or a major character moving, etc. (if they haven’t already, haven’t kept up.)